The Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday blocked an attempt to certify the Reproductive Freedom for All initiative to the November ballot in a tied vote of 2-2. According to CNN, the ballot was a citizen initiative aimed at enshrining abortion as a right in the state constitution.
“We are pleased that the Board of State Canvassers rejected the petition,” Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal said. “The real problem is the proposed Michigan amendment is being considered at the same time as the United States Supreme Court is considering the North Carolina re-districting appeal in Moore v. Harper. A North Carolina state legislative win will mean that state courts cannot invalidate state laws governing federal elections because it is a federally guaranteed prerogative of the state legislature. If so, Michigan’s proposed constitutional amendment, empowering state courts to invalidate state laws governing federal elections, will clearly violate the federal constitution as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court.”
Reproductive Freedom for All had submitted more than 750,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office in July and the Bureau of Elections estimated that just over 596,000 of those were valid signatures — about 146,000 more than were required. The amendment was challenged and during a public debate, the opposition argued that the amendment was too vague, poorly written, and full of errors. They asked for it to not be put on the November ballot.
The board, however, has approved the language in the proposed amendment as it would appear on the ballot if it is certified. They also deemed it as Proposal 22-3.
READ: Michigan prosecutors cannot enforce 1931 pro-life law, judge rules
In a final effort to include the constitutional amendment, Reproductive Freedom for All has now asked the state Supreme Court to order the Board of State Canvassers to certify the petition. The pro-abortion organization wants the decision to be made by September 7, which falls two days before the deadline to finalize the November ballot.
If certified and passed, the amendment would establish an “individual right to reproductive freedom” including abortion, and would define “reproductive freedom” as “the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care.”
It would prevent the state from protecting preborn humans prior to so-called fetal viability — which is defined not in terms of gestation, but is broad, arbitrary, and subjective, as abortionists have admitted. There would be an exception to allow abortion after “viability” in order to protect the mother’s mental or physical health, though induced abortion (intentionally causing the death of a preborn child) is not medically necessary.
Michigan did have a 1931 law on the books protecting preborn children from abortion. It could have gone into effect after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned Roe v. Wade, but it was blocked by state courts.
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